What I wouldn't do for some Jimmy Choos

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In the interest of full disclosure, I do not now nor have I ever owned designer shoes. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Really, I mean it. They look great on other women. When I was young I liked to wear spiked heels, and was willing to have my toes crammed into their pointy tips. I loved the way they looked, and it did make me feel better to appear taller. But would I ever have considered shaving off part of my big toe or shortening my middle toes in order to keep wearing flattering shoes?

Many women and men who have the time and the money spend a lot of both on self-improvement, everything from therapy to yoga to massages to hair transplants to plastic surgery to adult education classes. All good. It’s America. We can spend, give away, invest or waste our money any way we want. But foot surgery just to score fashion points seems outrageous.

I don’t know a Manolo Blahnik from a Christian Louboutin (although I think those are the ones with the pretty red soles). But I’m appalled at the idea of “designer feet for designer shoes,” as one doctor’s website promises. Does someone really go to medical school for four years, do residency and maybe a fellowship, take up space and time and money and then use office hours to inject fillers into someone’s metatarsal so she can flaunt her Jimmy Choos?

Of course, many people have foot surgery to correct various painful conditions. We need doctors to keep us ambulatory and able to run and play ball and climb stairs. For as long as we live, we need healthy feet to keep us moving through our days. What we don’t necessarily need are surgical procedures to keep us in four-inch, rhinestone-covered heels that cost $3,500.

Really, it’s too bad for women who feel insecure in their Uggs; too bad others can’t feel good about themselves unless they’re tottering down the street on spikes. But we can do a better job with our daughters and granddaughters. With all of us women leaning in and all the glass from the broken ceilings all over the place and a prospective woman president, can’t we get past the mandatory fashion requirements? If we can raise girls to be CEOs, surely we can raise them to be confident enough to sport comfortable shoes during their 14-hour work days.